Greater Terran Union
"Over a century ago, we paid for our future in blood. Every bullet fired, every bomb dropped, every tank, aircraft and warship which had unleashed its weapons and anger was a declaration to the universe. There is no power that can not be shattered by our collective will, no enemy that will deny us our destiny, no cause too great that human flesh and human steel will not rise to meet it. A century ago our forefathers fought for the right to exist. Citizens, I ask you – who among us was not humbled by their magnificent sacrifice? For many years we have worked to earn that sacrifice, we have sought reward in service alone. The path we chose was not an easy one, but never once we have faltered. For in our struggle, we have come to understand that the galaxy does not long permit the survival of the weak or the timid. And so today, as ships and armies march forward under the banner of our great nation, they carry with them a sacred fire that a century ago was lit in the heart of all mankind. Soon that fire will blaze across the stars, and should any stand against us, that fire will burn their fields and boil their oceans until their mountains crack and every hope is burned to ash! The entire galaxy will know, if we cannot move heaven, then we shall raise hell!" -High Marshal Natasha Fox '''The Greater Terran Union (GTU), '''is the interstellar nation created in 2153 in the Sol system after The Great Defensive War. Originally, the GTU was a provisional government to help the recovery of Earth on the aftermath of Tyrum Consciousness' invasion of the Planet, but after a planet-wide referendum, the state was legitimized as the sole government of Earth. The GTU is a highly militarized nation with a poor outlook on other races, both of which formed after the Great Defensive War that birthed the nation. The xenophobic policies were partially relaxed after the GTU became a major galactic power when it triumphed in the Final Compact War. The government executive body is the National Council with the Head of the Union being the High Marshal a twenty year term appointed position, with the legislative body being the national assembly the union's unicameral parliament. The nation is divided into regional commissariats, each covering several inhabited worlds, up to as many as ten worlds, along with dozens of systems without inhabited planets, used primarily for mining and research. The commissariats handle most government services while the national government may focus on policy. Occasionally the national government will order a commissariat to divulge a significant amount of resources for a major project or war effort, but almost all colony planning, infrastructure, and planet-side governance is handled by the regional governments. Star-bases are exempt from commissariat governments and directly controlled by the National Council. Each commissariat mimics the national government structure, with a Regional Council of military officers, a Commissar-General, and a Regional Assembly of elected representatives. Only mid-tier and higher citizens may vote for the Regional Assemblies, and only high-tier citizens may vote for the National Assembly. Some non-human species are allowed to access most ranks of Terran citizenship, but only Wessari have equal access to all ranks. However, all high-ranking military and civilian government offices are still held by humans because they massively outnumber Wessari due to all new colony worlds being settled by Humans. Wessari population has increased with the construction of multiple Space Habitats in the Raznum Commissariat. Tyrum Invasion Prior to the Tyrum Invasion, Earth was divided in almost 200 nations that were constantly infighting to protect their own individual interests. When the first signs of the Tyrum were discovered in 2089, and first attempts at communication were ignored by the aliens, most nations isolated themselves in order to organize their own defenses against the xeno threat. Their initial efforts proved unsuccessful. The United Nations attempted to assemble an orbital defense grid, though this effort was swept aside during the Tyrum's opening strike on February 17th 2090. Orbital bombardment was the Tyrum's greatest weapon, scattering human armies and annihilating planetary infrastructure in a matter of hours. Humanity wasn't completely in ruins, however, as the remnants of Earth's governments and military were able to achieve a coordinated intercontinental ballistic missile launch that crippled many of the most important Tyrum vessels in orbit. Unable to continue with their orbital bombardment campaign, the Tyrum was forced to fall back onto more conventional means of pacifying the local population. While not as numerous as the human forces, Tyrum land, air, and sea units were far more advanced than anything humanity could yet develop. Battles became skirmishes, skirmishes became slaughters. Guerrilla resistance became the only way to effectively combat the Tyrum. These small attacks ranged from destroying single tanks to liberating thousands from death camps to destroying one of the many towers the Tyrum had erected to begin terraforming the Earth. After 1/3 of the planet's population had been lost to the aliens, a unified defense was able to gain enough ground to fight back toe to toe with the Tyrum. Battle's began to turn in the human's favor as the Tyrum ran out of supplies and manpower. The war ended when the Tyrum where defeated at the Battle of Titan in 2097. After this, reconstruction of Earth became the priority and a provisional government was instituted, The Terran Union. Provisional Government and Reconstruction Strict measures were put in place after the Tyrum left. Faced with little arable land left, the Terran Union was forced to implement a one-child policy across the entirety of the planet. The Terran Union found difficulty in shifting to a civilian economy as the only remaining infrastructure existed entirely to fight back the Tyrum. Many operations were conducted that remain controversial to this day, though no one can argue that it wasn't done with humanity's best interest in mind. A planet wide referendum was organized in 2153 where the population was given the chance to decide if Earth would be divided again into the pre-war states, have a worldwide civilian government or continue with the military government. To the surprise of many in the Terran Union, the people of Earth put their faith into the system that pulled them back from the brink and voted for the continued existence of the Provisional Government. This would become the Greater Terran Union. Modern Government The government of the Greater Terran Union is a borderline stratocracy, where military and civil governance go hand in hand. Citizens are encouraged, and even required for a period of time, to work for the government, whether it be in the armed forces or in civil governance. The government of the Greater Terran Union is widely accepting of all races, creeds, and kinds, though this attitude is born more out of a practical need for the most capable of humanity than any Utopian ideal. The nation is divided into multiple commissariats that govern large swaths of the Earth or of human space. These governing bodies act as smaller replicas of the federal government and have provided the GTU the flexibility and capability to govern billions of people and xenos across thousands of light years. Executive power in the Union is held by the National Council, a coalition of 21 Military Marshals, each of whom also acts as the head of one of the government's departments. Acting as the head of the state and the National Council is the High Marshal, a first among equals who has special powers that were created to allow the Council to act quicker and more decisively in times of emergency. High Marshals are elected for twenty year terms, though this can be shortened or lengthened depending on extraneous circumstances. The legislative branch, consisting of a civilian National Assembly, has been criticized as being largely ceremonial. While the National Assembly in theory has the power to create and modify laws, in practice they act as a rubber stamp for laws that the National Council has already decided to pass. There are very few instances in Greater Terran Union history where the National Assembly did not agree with the National Council. The Greater Terran Union acts as a defacto single party state, however, many opposition parties exist as approved alternatives and are allowed to function within the National Assembly. Not much is known about the approval process, with the exception that any opposition parties must remain subordinate to the nation's interest. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the GTU's government is the tiered citizenship structure. As citizens become more effective and useful members of society, their citizenship tier can rise, granting them more rights and privileges. A popular punishment for minor crimes is the reduction of a citizenship tier, which can restrict their freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and countless other details of daily life that go as far down as the amount of water allotted to a citizen's showers each month. Expansion into Space In the late 22nd century, humanity had managed to recover from the Tyrum's invasion of Earth. As the nation became more and more prosperous, resources were freed that would allow for manned spaceflight to resume as it had nearly a century earlier. The first priority the new missions had were to examine the wrecks the Tyrum had left in orbit and recover all they could from them. Reverse-engineering the technology was a lengthy process, but by 2200, five ships had been created with newly understood hyper-drive technology embedded within them. On December 15th, 2200, the first interstellar hyperspace jump was conducted by the TUS Hawking as it successfully made its way into the Alpha Centauri system. The very next month, the Hawking would discover that Alpha Centauri III was capable of supporting human life, and already had a biosphere of its own that would take very little adaptation for humans to be able to live on its surface. As exploration of this new frontier went on, more habitable planets were found. The inevitable occurred as on Christmas Eve 2207, a colony ship touched down on a planet orbiting Sirius that would go on to be named "Acadia." Second Contact In 2208, alarms sounded in the Greater Terran Union's Space Warfare Branch's headquarters as an unidentified object was seen appearing from hyperspace in the same system a civilian science vessel was examining. The only thing that prevented Space Warfare command from sending the Home Fleet after the ship was that it appeared to be a scientific vessel itself. The information was brought to the National Council, where they decided that they would not fire upon the craft, but that they would remain on high alert and the public would remain in the dark about the ship until the craft's origins could be determined. On March 2nd 2209, an unknown radio signal reached the GTU. The image of a strange plant-like creature filled the screen as it spoke in a strange and difficult to comprehend mix of Arabic, German, Mandarin, and English. The signal was put through to a team of scholars and diplomats who managed to successfully communicate with the aliens, who called themselves the Algan Republic. Expansion into space would continue, but with the introduction of the Algan Republic, the National Council determined that humanity's interests had to be assured in their local area of space just as it had to on Earth. Aggressive expansion towards strategic points in the hyperspace network began at the same time as an effort to construct powerful military space stations on the border between Human and Algan space. The trend only continued as the governments officially announced their distaste for each other and as the United Clans of Skiron appeared. Wessari Annexation In 2220, a strategic star system was fully surveyed on the edge of human space. Plans had already been drawn to claim the system and fortify it, but GTU planners were surprised when it was discovered that another alien civilization already existed there. The civilization was incapable of faster than light travel, but preliminary recon revealed a number of satellites and primitive space stations in orbit over the planet. Examinations of the species' culture and broadcasts into space revealed that total political unification was on the horizon, and leading xeno-anthropologists predicted that the disparate peoples of the little world were mere decades away from making contact and becoming yet another competing empire. An emergency vote was held in the National Council, where a narrow majority decided that the threat of an alien civilization gaining FTL technology in the middle of human space was too great, and that the opportunity to prevent yet another competing space power from arriving on their doorstop had to be taken. On June 22nd, 2222, human warships swept aside a hastily prepared orbital defense grid and began ground operations to capitulate the primitive Wessari. The initial campaign was quick, taking mere days to pacify them. The annexation of the Wessari, which had remained unannounced until after the war was declared won, immediately sparked controversy and fury across the GTU. Comparisons were drawn between the National Council and the Tyrum as many saw the absorption of the Wessari immoral and their integration into the widely human supremacist society of the GTU impossible. Documents were soon leaked by an unknown whistle-blower that presented irrefutable evidence that at least one of the Marshals supported the invasion solely to test the effectiveness of human ground forces. Ultimately, it was decided that the Wessari would remain within the Greater Terran Union, though they would not be granted citizenship. The topic remained a hot-button issue for years to come as policy makers could always easily discredit their opponents by bringing up their opinion on the subjugation of the Wessari. Measures were put in place to segregate the Wessari from civilians, though this did nothing to keep the Wessari from protesting against the occupation of their homeworld. Category:State